Bodies in boats found drifting off Japan

Japan is investigating nearly a dozen suspicious boats found drifting off the country's coastline, some with decaying bodies aboard.

Media speculation is that they are from North Korea.

At least 11 cases involving wooden boats – some badly damaged – with 20 bodies on board have been reported during October and November, Japan's coastguard says.

Many of the boats have been towed to Japanese ports but the bodies are yet to be identified and investigations are ongoing.

On Tuesday (local time), one of the boats was pulled ashore at Fukui port after three sets of remains were found inside when coastguard personnel spotted it about 100 kilometres offshore in the Sea of Japan, private TV channel Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) reported.

The body of water is known as the East Sea in North and South Korea.

TBS said the remains were badly decomposed and partially skeletonised, while Japan's public TV broadcaster NHK said Korean writing was visible on the boats as well as clothes left inside the vessels.

Experts suspect the vessels are fishing boats from North Korea as the impoverished state prone to poor harvests tries to expand its fishing industry to bolster food security.

A number are thought to have become lost due to a lack of modern equipment, including GPS capability.